Ouran Koukou Vol.1

Synopsis:

The story starts with our lead character looking for a quiet place to study (in school) but instead stumble into the third music room. BUT, the room was not used by music students. Instead, there was the Host Club – comprising of 6 really hot guys (or should I say 5 hot guys with 1 very very cute guy).
Needless to say, Haruhi (that’s our lead) was shocked into breaking an 8-million yen vase, and therefore have to now be the club’s dog!

Alright – this synopsis requires more explanation, since you most probably won’t understand if you didn’t read the real thing.

Haruhi is the poorest student in Ouran Gakuen, a school made only for the pedigrees and the rich. You’ll either have to be a blue blooded noble of some kind or rich enough to buy a useless piece of ceramic for 8-million yen. Which is why, Haruhi is the one and only scholarship student in the entire academy.

Our 6 beautiful guys open the host club to serve the females of the school (it seems that they have a LOT of free time in that school). We have the King – Tamaki (who is also the Headmaster’s kid), the very cute Lolita type – Haninozuka (Hunny for short), the serious samurai type – Morinozuka (Mori). The twins with the taste for incest – Hikaru & Kaoru as well as the “perfect” vice president – Kyouya.

That about sums it all up. Oh, and just in case you didn’t realize it from the start, Haruhi is a girl. She just have very low consciousness regarding gender.
Anyway, the guys found out by accident that Haruhi actually make a really cute “guy who looks like a girl” and a natural talent to be a host .Which is why she was upgraded to one. And from there we will start the journey of Ouran High School Host Club.

Review:

The storyline starts off good, but after the 2^nd chapter, we can actually recognize a pattern going on (which in the next few volumes will tend to get a little tiring.) But no worries, the pattern will be broken here and there, especially in the back volumes where the plot is going to reach the climax soon.

Each new chapter brings about a new story. You can actually recognize that from the different costume they wear at the club (it seems that they’re trying and experiencing different customs, but that is just BS that Kyouya spout to the students parents... hehehe)

A new story arc will definitely bring about a new set of costumes (may it be a southern costumes, to samurai, to yukata, etc)

A note here is that I will definitely not be summarizing those little chapters which usually bring about temporary supporting characters which are not important to the main story. I might even skip a volume or 2, or maybe compress more than 1 volume into a single review.

I would say that Ouran actually have many weaknesses that might turn you away from the manga. One is the plot development which is too slow (as mentioned earlier). Another is the artwork. Although the characters drawn are really good looking (especially Tamaki & Haruhi) but one thing I find annoying is that when Hatori-san (the mangaka) draws the characters at an angle other than the front facing, it will turn out really bad. Another thing to notice is that the manga in total is very messy, with plenty of bits and pieces here and there. If you really want to see how the characters look at their best, watch the anime!

However, there is 1 strength regarding the artwork which I really appreciate is that each character looks completely different from one another. This is especially important when we have so many main characters ( I consider each host as a main character). Even the temporary supporting characters look different. I am able to recognize and remember all the main characters by the end of volume 1 due to the different looks and also to the characteristics of the character (am I making sense?? I will explain more in my review of the next volume.)

These few strengths as well as character development brought Ouran to a much higher level than it would have been. Which is why it is understandably one of the most popular shoujo manga currently.

Labels: Ouran

Posted at 12:04 AM